The Social Significance of the Modern Drama : Foreword

1914

People

(1869 - 1940) ~ Russian-American Mother of Anarcho-Communism : She is an Anarchist, pure and simple. She represents the idea of Anarchism as framed by Josiah Warren, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Tolstoy. Yet she also understands the psychologic causes which induce a Caserio, a Vaillant, a Bresci, a Berkman, or a Czolgosz to commit deeds of violence. (From : Hippolyte Havel Bio.) • "The political superstition is still holding sway over the hearts and minds of the masses, but the true lovers of liberty will have no more to do with it." (From : "Anarchism: What It Really Stands For," by Emma Go....) • "...Anarchism, or any other social theory, making man a conscious social unit, will act as a leaven for rebellion. This is not a mere assertion, but a fact verified by all experience." (From : "The Psychology of Political Violence," by Emma Go....) • "Man's greatest battles have been waged against man-made obstacles and artificial handicaps imposed upon him to paralyze his growth and development. Human thought has always been falsified by tradition and custom, and perverted false education in the interests of those who held power and enjoyed privileges." (From : "The Place of the Individual in Society," by Emma ....)

FOREWORD

IN order to understand the social and dynamic significance of
modern dramatic art it is necessary, I believe, to ascertain the
difference between the functions of art for art's sake
and art as the mirror of life.

Art for art's sake presupposes an attitude of aloofness
on the part of the artist toward the complex struggle of life:
he must rise above the ebb and tide of life. He is to be merely
an artistic conjurer of beautiful forms, a creator of pure fancy.

That is not the attitude of modern art, which is preeminently
the reflex, the mirror of life. The artist being a part of life
cannot detach himself from the events and occurrences that pass
panorama-like before his eyes, impressing themselves upon his
emotional and intellectual vision.

The modern artist is, in the words of August Strindberg, "a
lay preacher popularizing the pressing questions of his time."
Not necessarily because his aim is to proselyte, but because he
can best express himself by being true to life.

Millet, Meunier, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Emerson, Walt Whitman,
Tolstoy, Ibsen, Strindberg, Hauptmann and a host of others mirror
in their work as much of the spiritual and social revolt as is
expressed by the most fiery speech of the propagandist. And more
important still, they compel far greater attention. Their creative
genius, imbued with the spirit of sincerity and truth, strikes
root where the ordinary word often falls on barren soil.

The reason that many radicals as well as conservatives fail to
grasp the powerful message of art is perhaps not far to seek.
The average radical is as hidebound by mere terms as the man devoid
of all ideas. "Bloated plutocrats," "economic determinism,"
"class consciousness," and similar expressions sum up
for him the symbols of revolt. But since art speaks a language
of its own, a language embracing the entire gamut of human emotions,
it often sounds meaningless to those whose hearing has been dulled
by the din of stereotyped phrases.

On the other hand, the conservative sees danger only in the advocacy
of the Red Flag. He has too long been fed on the historic legend
that it is only the "rabble" which makes revolutions,
and not those who wield the brush or pen. It is therefore legitimate
to applaud the artist and hound the rabble. Both radical and conservative
have to learn that any mode of creative work, which with true
perception portrays social wrongs earnestly and boldly, may be
a greater menace to our social fabric and a more powerful inspiration
than the wildest harangue of the soapbox orator.

Unfortunately, we in America have so far looked upon the theater
as a place of amusement only, exclusive of ideas and inspiration.
Because the modern drama of Europe has till recently been inaccessible
in printed form to the average theater-goer in this country, he
had to content himself with the interpretation, or rather misinterpretation,
of our dramatic critics. As a result the social significance of
the Modern Drama has well nigh been lost to the general public.

As to the native drama, America has so far produced very little
worthy to be considered in a social light. Lacking the cultural
and evolutionary tradition of the Old World, America has necessarily
first to prepare the soil out of which sprouts creative genius.

The hundred and one springs of local and sectional life must
have time to furrow their common channel into the seething sea
of life at large, and social questions and problems make themselves
felt, if not crystallized, before the throbbing pulse of the big
national heart can find its reflex in a great literature--and
specifically in the drama--of a social character. This evolution
has been going on in this country for a considerable time, shaping
the wide-spread unrest that is now beginning to assume more or
less definite social form and expression.

Therefore, America could not so far produce its own social drama.
But in proportion as the crystallization progresses, and sectional
and national questions become clarified as fundamentally social
problems, the drama develops. Indeed, very commendable beginnings
in this direction have been made within recent years, among them
"The Easiest Way," by Eugene Walter, "Keeping Up
Appearances," and other plays by Butler Davenport, "Nowadays"
and two other volumes of one-act plays, by George Middleton,--attempts
that hold out an encouraging promise for the future.

. . . . . . . . . .

The Modern Drama, as all modern literature, mirrors the complex
struggle of life,--the struggle which, whatever its individual
or topical expression, ever has its roots in the depth of human
nature and social environment, and hence is, to that extent, universal.
Such literature, such drama, is at once the reflex and the inspiration
of mankind in its eternal seeking for things higher and better.
Perhaps those who learn the great truths of the social travail
in the school of life, do not need the message of the drama. But
there is another class whose number is legion, for whom that message
is indispensable. In countries where political oppression affects
all classes, the best intellectual element have made common cause
with the people, have become their teachers, comrades, and spokesmen.
But in America political pressure has so far affected only the
"common" people. It is they who are thrown into prison;
they who are persecuted and mobbed, tarred and deported. Therefore
another medium is needed to arouse the intellectuals of this country,
to make them realize their relation to the people, to the social
unrest permeating the atmosphere.

The medium which has the power to do that is the Modern Drama,
because it mirrors every phase of life and embraces every strata
of society,--the Modern Drama, showing each and all caught in
the throes of the tremendous changes going on, and forced either
to become part of the process or be left behind.

Ibsen, Strindberg, Hauptmann, Tolstoy, Shaw, Galsworthy and the
other dramatists contained in this volume represent the social
iconoclasts of our time. They know that society has gone beyond
the stage of patching up, and that man must throw off the dead
weight of the past, with all its ghosts and spooks, if he is to
go foot free to meet the future.

This is the social significance which differentiates modern dramatic
art from art for art's sake. It is the dynamite which undermines
superstition, shakes the social pillars, and prepares men and
women for the reconstruction.